112 PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-SIXTH FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 



County, in the Sacramento Valley. This makes it $140 more per car than it costs 

 the orange growers, or something over 50 per cent additional cost per car on deciduous 

 shipments. 



You are requested to give careful consideration to the following items of cost per 

 car for deciduous fruit shipments, including freight and refrigeration charges, from 

 all stations on the Sacramento and Placerville railroad to New York. 



(Same rates prevail from all points in the Sacramento Valley except on shipments 

 made from the City of Sacramento and Placer County. The number of cars loaded 

 at Sacramento is small when compared with the cars that bear the heavier rate for 



refrigeration. ) 



Freight $348 00 



Refrigeration 97 50 



Railroad charges $445 50 



Loading $18 50 



Average cost of delivery at car 18 50 



Cost of crates, complete 124 63 



Cost picking, packing and hauling to packing house.. 158 52 



Cost of production 144 72 



4G4 ST 



$910 37 



Commission on $910.37 at 7 per cent 63 75 



Commission on commission $63.75 4 46 



$978 58 



The items of the cost of picking, packing, etc., and the cost of production are 

 taken from the writer's own expense account of such cost and are absolutely correct 

 and are subject to your inspection and investigation. These charges do not include 

 the family cost of living, nor interest upon the capital invested, which every organ- 

 ized business interest, including railroad companies, claim to be a legitimate charge, 

 and railroad companies arrange their passenger and freight rates so they will at 

 least bring them sufficient revenue with which to pay all expenses and interest at a 

 rate that will give then a reasonable profit upon their capital invested. 



As stated, the cost for support of the family and the payment of a reasonable per 

 cent of profit on the capital invested are not included in the cost above given of 

 growing and marketing a car load of deciduous fruit. 



The boom literature that has been sent broadcast all over the civilized world by 

 California promotion committees, chambers of commerce, syndicates and associations 

 formed for colonization purposes, claiming that five and ten-acre tracts, when planted 

 to orchard and vineyard, will bring to their possessors an income sufficient to com- 

 fortably support a family and leave something to lay aside for a rainy day and old 

 age, has resulted in inducing many to come to California and to go into the deciduous 

 fruit growing business upon both small and large scales. 



It is a small family that has less than three members, and if less, then one that 

 is not much good for the upbuilding of the State, and particularly not much good to 

 bring in revenue to railroads. In order to illustrate the point, we will assume that 

 there are only three members of the family, and that it will take one dollar each 

 per day. or $1,095 per annum to support them, an allowance we believe you will 

 not think an extravagant one, and such as we do not believe you would be willing, 

 under existing circumstances, to assume the responsibility of carrying out — out of 

 which the cost of feeding, clothing, educating, paying doctor's bills, railroad fares, 

 and other necessary expenditures must come. 



In considering this matter we will eliminate the five-acre tract altogether, for the 

 reason that the sense in which the proposition makes it. under present conditions, 

 too absurd to be given a moment's consideration, and take up the ten-acre proposition. 



Ten acres will yield, approximately, three car loads of shipping fruit. Divide 

 $1,095 by three and we have $365, which must be added to the $978.56, as shown 

 above to be the cost of growing and marketing in the East a car load of deciduous 

 fruit, exclusive of the cost of family support, and wejiave $1,343.56, to which we 

 must add the full commission on the $365, which is $27.29, and we find the average 

 cost of growing and marketing a car load of California deciduous fruit in New 

 York to be, without allowing interest on the capital invested, $1.370.S5. 



Good orchard and vineyard land, planted to trees and vines, has commanded all 

 the way from $300 to $1,000 per acre, and a large area has been sold at these prices. 



Take the minimum price on ten acres, and the initial cost is $3,000. The interest 

 at 8 per cent per annum on $3,000 is $240. This sum, together with the additional 

 commission, added to the $1,370.85 above mentioned, makes $1.628.S6. 



We will not consider the $1,000 acre land. To do so would add $560, together 

 with additional commission, which would make it necessary for a car load to sell 

 for $2,229.81 in order to pay 8 per cent interest on the initial cost or capital invested. 



No doubt when you first go over the statements and figures above given you will 



